January 31, 2016

(January 31, 2016) Before
the advent of modern medicine, about 10 000 Rh positive children born to Rh
negative mothers were dying for hemolytic anemia in the US each year. Without
the superiority of the heterozygotes – the carriers of both variants of Rhesus
gene, the less abundant allele should be quickly eliminated from any
population. Jaroslav Flegr probably solved 80 years old enigma of coexistence
of carriers of two variants of Rhesus gene in the same population.

A new study published today in PLoS ONE (1) showed that
incidence and morbidity of many diseases and disorders correlate negatively
with frequencies of Rh+ heterozygotes (i.e. the carriers of one copy of the
gene for Rh positivity and one copy of the gene for Rh negativity) in the
population of individual countries. At the same time, the disease burden
associated with the same disorders correlated positively with frequency of Rh
negative subjects in individual countries. Together with the observed worse
health status and higher incidence of many disorders in Rh negative subjects
published by the same research team last autumn (2), this result probably
solved 80 years old enigma of coexistence of carriers of two variants of Rhesus
gene in the same population.

January 30, 2016

and graduate
student and co-lead author Peter Beaucage, second from right, hold models

of the
self-assembled gyroid superconductor the group created. Also pictured are

Bruce van Dover,
left, professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering,

and Sol Gruner,
the John L. Wetherill Professor of Physics.

(January 30, 2016) Building
on nearly two decades’ worth of research, a multidisciplinary team at Cornell
has blazed a new trail by creating a self-assembled, three-dimensional gyroidal
superconductor.

Ulrich Wiesner, the Spencer T. Olin Professor of
Engineering, led the group, which included researchers in engineering,
chemistry and physics.

The group’s findings are detailed in a paper published in
Science Advances, Jan. 29.

Wiesner said it’s the first time a superconductor, in this
case niobium nitride (NbN), has self-assembled into a porous, 3-D gyroidal
structure. The gyroid is a complex cubic structure based on a surface that
divides space into two separate volumes that are interpenetrating and contain
various spirals. Pores and the superconducting material have structural
dimensions of only around 10 nanometers, which could lead to entirely novel
property profiles of superconductors.

Superconductivity for practical uses, such as in magnetic
resonance imaging (MRI) scanners and fusion reactors, is only possible at near
absolute zero (-459.67 degrees below zero), although recent experimentation has
yielded superconducting at a comparatively balmy 94 degrees below zero.

“There’s this effort in research to get superconducting at
higher temperatures, so that you don’t have to cool anymore,” Wiesner said.
“That would revolutionize everything. There’s a huge impetus to get that.”

Superconductivity, in which electrons flow without
resistance and the resultant energy-sapping heat, is still an expensive
proposition. MRIs use superconducting magnets, but the magnets constantly have
to be cooled, usually with a combination of liquid helium and nitrogen.

(January 30, 2016) Researchers
have shown that graphene can be used to make electrodes that can be implanted
in the brain, which could potentially be used to restore sensory functions for
amputee or paralysed patients, or for individuals with motor disorders such as
Parkinson’s disease.

Researchers have successfully demonstrated how it is
possible to interface graphene – a two-dimensional form of carbon – with
neurons, or nerve cells, while maintaining the integrity of these vital cells.
The work may be used to build graphene-based electrodes that can safely be
implanted in the brain, offering promise for the restoration of sensory
functions for amputee or paralysed patients, or for individuals with motor
disorders such as epilepsy or Parkinson’s disease.

The research, published in the journal ACS Nano, was an
interdisciplinary collaboration coordinated by the University of Trieste in
Italy and the Cambridge Graphene Centre.

Previously, other groups had shown that it is possible to
use treated graphene to interact with neurons. However the signal to noise
ratio from this interface was very low. By developing methods of working with
untreated graphene, the researchers retained the material’s electrical
conductivity, making it a significantly bet

(January 30, 2016) In
this study, Faculty of Health researchers were looking at fMRI brain scans of
professional ballet dancers to measure the long-term effects of learning.

“We wanted to study how the brain gets activated with
long-term rehearsal of complex dance motor sequences,” says Professor Joseph
DeSouza, who studies and supports people with Parkinson’s disease. “The study
outcome will help with understanding motor learning and developing effective
treatments to rehabilitate the damaged or diseased brain.”

For the study, 11 dancers (19-50 years of age) from the
National Ballet of Canada were asked to visualize dance movements to music,
while undergoing fMRI scanning. The scans measured Blood-Oxygen-Level-Dependent
(BOLD) contrasts at four time points over 34 weeks, when they were learning a
new dance.

“Our aim was to find out the long-term impact of the
cortical changes that occur as one goes from learning a motor sequence to
becoming an expert at it,” says coauthor Rachel Bar, who was a ballet dancer
herself. “Our results also suggest that understanding the neural underpinnings
of complex motor tasks such as learning a new dance can be an effective model
to study motor learning in the real world.”

The new nanoscale
manufacturing process draws zinc to the surface of a liquid,

where it forms
sheets just a few atoms thick. XUDONG WANG

(January 30, 2016) After
six years of painstaking effort, a group of University of Wisconsin—Madison
materials scientists believes the tiny sheets of the semiconductor zinc oxide
they’re growing could have huge implications for the future of a host of
electronic and biomedical devices.

The group — led by Xudong Wang, a UW–Madison professor of
materials science and engineering, and postdoctoral researcher Fei Wang — has
developed a technique for creating nearly two-dimensional sheets of compounds
that do not naturally form such thin materials. It is the first time such a
technique has been successful.

The researchers described their findings in the journal
Nature Communications on Jan. 20.

Essentially the microscopic equivalent of a single sheet of
paper, a 2-D nanosheet is a material just a few atoms thick. Nanomaterials have
unique electronic and chemical properties compared to identically composed
materials at larger, conventional scales.

Anew-fangled modem
that will employ an emerging technology called integrated

photonics will be
tested as part of NASA’s Laser Communications Relay Demonstration mission.

Credits: NASA

(January 30, 2016) A
NASA team has been tapped to build a new type of communications modem that will
employ an emerging, potentially revolutionary technology that could transform
everything from telecommunications, medical imaging, advanced manufacturing to
national defense.

The space agency’s first-ever integrated-photonics modem
will be tested aboard the International Space Station beginning in 2020 as part
of NASA’s multi-year Laser Communications Relay Demonstration, or LCRD. The
cell phone-sized device incorporates optics-based functions, such as lasers,
switches, and wires, onto a microchip — much like an integrated circuit found
in all electronics hardware.

Since its inception in 1958, NASA has relied exclusively on
radio frequency (RF)-based communications. Today, with missions demanding
higher data rates than ever before, the need for LCRD has become more critical,
said Don Cornwell, director of NASA’s Advanced Communication and Navigation
Division within the space Communications and Navigation Program, which is
funding the modem’s development.

LCRD promises to transform the way NASA sends and receives
data, video and other information. It will use lasers to encode and transmit
data at rates 10 to 100 times faster than today’s communications equipment,
requiring significantly less mass and power. Such a leap in technology could
deliver video and high-resolution measurements from spacecraft over planets
across the solar system — permitting researchers to make detailed studies of
conditions on other worlds, much as scientists today track hurricanes and other
climate and environmental changes here on Earth.

(January 30, 2016) UNIST
research team, developed a new simple nanowire manufacturing technique.

A team of Korean researchers, affiliated with UNIST has
recently pioneered in developing a new simple nanowire manufacturing technique
that uses self-catalytic growth process assisted by thermal decomposition of
natural gas. According to the research team, this method is simple,
reproducible, size-controllable, and cost-effective in that lithium-ion
batteries could also benefit from it.

In their approach, they discovered that germanium nanowires
are grown by the reduction of germanium oxide particles and subsequent
self-catalytic growth during the thermal decomposition of natural gas, and
simultaneously, carbon sheath layers are uniformly coated on the nanowire
surface.

In a study, reported in the January 21, 2016 issue of Nano
Letters, the team demonstrated a new redox-responsive assembly method to
synthesize hierarchically structured carbon-sheathed germanium nanowires
(c-GeNWs) on a large scale by the use of self-catalytic growth process assisted
by thermally decomposed natural gas.

According to the team, this simple synthetic process not
only enables them to synthesize hierachially assembled materials from
inexpensive metal oxides at a larger scale, but also can likely be extended to
other metal oxides as well. Moreover, the resulting hierarchically assembled
nanowires (C-GeNWs) show enhanced chemical and thermal stability, as well as
outstanding electrochemical properties.

Using electrodes implanted in the temporal lobes of awake
patients, scientists have decoded brain signals at nearly the speed of
perception. Further, analysis of
patients’ neural responses to two categories of visual stimuli – images of
faces and houses – enabled the scientists to subsequently predict which images
the patients were viewing, and when, with better than 95 percent accuracy.

The research is published today in PLOS Computational
Biology.

University of Washington computational neuroscientist Rajesh
Rao and UW Medicine neurosurgeon Jeff Ojemann, working their student Kai Miller
and with colleagues in Southern California and New York, conducted the study.

“We were trying to understand, first, how the human brain
perceives objects in the temporal lobe, and second, how one could use a
computer to extract and predict what someone is seeing in real time?” explained
Rao. He is a UW professor of computer
science and engineering, and he directs the National Science Foundation’s
Center for Sensorimotor Engineering, headquartered at UW.

The numbers 1-4
denote electrode placement in temporal lobe,

and neural
responses of two signal types being measured.

“Clinically, you could think of our result as a proof of
concept toward building a communication mechanism for patients who are
paralyzed or have had a stroke and are completely locked-in,” he said.

The study involved seven epilepsy patients receiving care at
Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. Each was experiencing epileptic seizures
not relieved by medication, Ojemann said, so each had undergone surgery in
which their brains’ temporal lobes were implanted – temporarily, for about a
week – with electrodes to try to locate the seizures’ focal points.

Neuroscientist
Rajesh Rao and neurosurgeon Jeff Ojemann

are faculty at the
University of Washington.

“They were going to get the electrodes no matter what; we
were just giving them additional tasks to do during their hospital stay while
they are otherwise just waiting around,” Ojemann said.

Temporal lobes process sensory input and are a common site
of epileptic seizures. Situated behind mammals’ eyes and ears, the lobes are
also involved in Alzheimer’s and dementias and appear somewhat more vulnerable
than other brain structures to head traumas, he said.

In the experiment, the electrodes from multiple
temporal-lobe locations were connected to powerful computational software that
extracted two characteristic properties of the brain signal: “event-related
potentials” and “broadband spectral changes.”

An international public-private consortium of researchers
led by The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research has had its work
published in eLife. A team comprising investigators from the Max Planck
Institute of Biochemistry, the University of Dundee, GlaxoSmithKline and MSD,
known as Merck & Co., Inc., in the United States and Canada, has discovered
that the LRRK2 kinase regulates cellular trafficking by deactivating Rab
proteins. This finding illuminates a novel route for therapeutic development
and may accelerate testing of LRRK2 inhibitors as a disease-modifying therapy
for Parkinson’s, the second most common neurodegenerative disease.

An international public-private research consortium has
identified and validated a cellular role of a primary Parkinson’s disease drug
target, the LRRK2 kinase. This important finding, published in the online,
open-access eLife journal, illuminates a novel route for therapeutic
development and intervention testing for Parkinson’s, the second most common
neurodegenerative disease after Alzheimer’s.

A team of investigators from the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry,
the University of Dundee, The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s
Research (MJFF), GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and MSD contributed unique tools and
expertise toward rigorous systematic testing that determined the LRRK2 kinase
regulates cellular trafficking by deactivating certain Rab proteins (3, 8, 10
and 12).

Northwestern
University researchers have developed a new hybrid polymer with

removable
supramolecular compartments, shown in this molecular model.

(Credit: Mark E.
Seniw, Northwestern University)

(January 28, 2016) Hybrid
polymers could lead to new concepts in self-repairing materials, drug delivery
and artificial muscles

Imagine a polymer with removable parts that can deliver
something to the environment and then be chemically regenerated to function
again. Or a polymer that can lift weights, contracting and expanding the way
muscles do.

These functions require polymers with both rigid and soft
nano-sized compartments with extremely different properties that are organized
in specific ways. A completely new hybrid polymer of this type has been
developed by Northwestern University researchers that might one day be used in
artificial muscles or other life-like materials; for delivery of drugs,
biomolecules or other chemicals; in materials with self-repair capability; and
for replaceable energy sources.

“We have created a surprising new polymer with nano-sized
compartments that can be removed and chemically regenerated multiple times,”
said materials scientist Samuel I. Stupp, the senior author of the study.

“Some of the nanoscale compartments contain rigid
conventional polymers, but others contain the so-called supramolecular
polymers, which can respond rapidly to stimuli, be delivered to the environment
and then be easily regenerated again in the same locations. The supramolecular
soft compartments could be animated to generate polymers with the functions we
see in living things,” he said.

Stupp is director of Northwestern’s Simpson Querrey
Institute for BioNanotechnology. He is a leader in the fields of nanoscience
and supramolecular self-assembly, the strategy used by biology to create highly
functional ordered structures.

(January 28, 2016) Approach
Could Remove Major Obstacles to Increasing the Capacity of Lithium-ion
Batteries

Scientists have been trying for years to make a practical
lithium-ion battery anode out of silicon, which could store 10 times more
energy per charge than today’s commercial anodes and make high-performance
batteries a lot smaller and lighter. But two major problems have stood in the
way: Silicon particles swell, crack and shatter during battery charging, and
they react with the battery electrolyte to form a coating that saps their
performance.

Now, a team from Stanford University and the Department of
Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory has come up with a possible solution:
Wrap each and every silicon anode particle in a custom-fit cage made of
graphene, a pure form of carbon that is the thinnest and strongest material
known and a great conductor of electricity.

In a report published Jan. 25 in Nature Energy, they describe
a simple, three-step method for building microscopic graphene cages of just the
right size: roomy enough to let the silicon particle expand as the battery
charges, yet tight enough to hold all the pieces together when the particle
falls apart, so it can continue to function at high capacity. The strong,
flexible cages also block destructive chemical reactions with the electrolyte.

This time-lapse
movie from an electron microscope shows the new battery material in action:

a silicon particle
expanding and cracking inside a graphene cage while being charged.

The cage holds the
pieces of the particle together and preserves its electrical conductivity

and performance.
(Hyun-Wook Lee/Stanford University)

“In testing, the graphene cages actually enhanced the
electrical conductivity of the particles and provided high charge capacity,
chemical stability and efficiency," said Yi Cui, an associate professor at
SLAC and Stanford who led the research. “The method can be applied to other
electrode materials, too, making energy-dense, low-cost battery materials a
realistic possibility.”

The Quest for Silicon
Anodes

Lithium-ion batteries work by moving lithium ions back and
forth through an electrolyte solution between two electrodes, the cathode and
the anode. Charging the battery forces the ions into the anode; using the
battery to do work moves the ions back to the cathode.

January 27, 2016

Students at the
Hebrew University's BioDesign program paired pressure-sensing

socks with
smartphones to reduce foot ulcers in diabetic patients.

(Photo: The Hebrew
University of Jerusalem)

(January 27, 2016) Diabetic
neuropathy is a type of nerve damage associated with the development of foot
ulcers in patients with diabetes. Resulting from anatomical deformation,
excessive pressure and poor blood supply, it affects over 130 million
individuals worldwide. It is also the leading cause of amputation, costing the
United States economy alone more than $10 billion annually.

Diabetic patients are encouraged to get regular checkups to
monitor for the increased pressure and ulceration that can eventually require
amputation. However, ulcers are only diagnosed after they occur, meaning that
patients require healing time, which dramatically increases healthcare costs.

Members of the BioDesign: Medical Innovation program,
created by The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and its affiliated Hadassah Medical
Center, set out to solve this problem.

“This is a significant medical problem that affects the
lives of millions. We thought there must be a way to avoid these wounds
altogether,” said Danny Bavli, the group’s lead engineer.

(January 27, 2016) When
UC Berkeley engineers say they are going to make you sweat, it is all in the
name of science.

Specifically, it is for a flexible sensor system that can
measure metabolites and electrolytes in sweat, calibrate the data based upon
skin temperature and sync the results in real time to a smartphone.

While health monitors have exploded onto the consumer
electronics scene over the past decade, researchers say this device, reported
in the Jan. 28 issue of the journal Nature, is the first fully integrated
electronic system that can provide continuous, non-invasive monitoring of
multiple biochemicals in sweat.

The advance opens doors to wearable devices that alert users
to health problems such as fatigue, dehydration and dangerously high body
temperatures.

Users wearing the
flexible sensor array can run and move freely while the chemicals in their

sweat are measured
and analyzed. The resulting data, which is transmitted wirelessly

to a mobile
device, can be used to help assess and monitor a user’s state of health.

(Image by
Der-Hsien Lien and Hiroki Ota, UC Berkeley)

“Human sweat contains physiologically rich information, thus
making it an attractive body fluid for non-invasive wearable sensors,” said
study principal investigator Ali Javey, a UC Berkeley professor of electrical
engineering and computer sciences. “However, sweat is complex and it is
necessary to measure multiple targets to extract meaningful information about
your state of health. In this regard, we have developed a fully integrated
system that simultaneously and selectively measures multiple sweat analytes,
and wirelessly transmits the processed data to a smartphone. Our work presents
a technology platform for sweat-based health monitors.”

The new sensor
developed at UC Berkeley can be made into “smart” wristbands

or headbands that
provide continuous, real-time analysis of the chemicals in sweat.

(UC Berkeley photo
by Wei Gao)

Javey worked with study co-lead authors Wei Gao and Sam
Emaminejad, both of whom are postdoctoral fellows in his lab. Emaminejad also
has a joint appointment at the Stanford School of Medicine, and all three have
affiliations with the Berkeley Sensor and Actuator Center and the Materials
Sciences Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Chemical clues to a
person’s physical condition

To help design the sweat sensor system, Javey and his team
consulted exercise physiologist George Brooks, a UC Berkeley professor of
integrative biology. Brooks said he was impressed when Javey and his team first
approached him about the sensor.

“Having a wearable sweat sensor is really incredible because
the metabolites and electrolytes measured by the Javey device are vitally
important for the health and well-being of an individual,” said Brooks, a
co-author on the study. “When studying the effects of exercise on human
physiology, we typically take blood samples. With this non-invasive technology,
someday it may be possible to know what’s going on physiologically without
needle sticks or attaching little, disposable cups on you.”

in the primary
thermometer device. The measured tunnel current is used in determining

the absolute
electron temperature.

(January 27, 2016) The
first ever measurement of the temperature of electrons in a nanoelectronic
device a few thousandths of a degree above absolute zero was demonstrated in a
joint research project performed by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland
Ltd, Lancaster University, and Aivon Ltd. The team managed to make the
electrons in a circuit on a silicon chip colder than had previously been
achieved.

Although it has long been possible to cool samples of bulk
metals even below 1 millikelvin, it has proved very difficult to transfer this
temperature to electrons in small electronic devices, mainly because the
interaction between the conducting electrons and the crystal lattice becomes
extremely weak at low temperatures. By combining state-of-the-art micro and
nanofabrication and pioneering measurement approaches the research team
realized ultralow electron temperatures reaching 3.7 millikelvin in a
nanoelectronic electron tunnelling device. A scientific article on the subject
was published in Nature Communications on 27 January 2016.

This breakthrough paves the way towards sub-millikelvin
nanoelectronic circuits and is another step on the way to develop new quantum
technologies including quantum computers and sensors. Quantum technologies use
quantum mechanical effects to outperform any possible technology based only on
classical physics. In general, many high sensitivity magnetic field sensors and
radiation detectors require low temperatures simply to reduce detrimental
thermal noise.

This work marks the creation of a key enabling technology
which will facilitate R&D in nanoscience, solid-state physics, materials
science and quantum technologies. The demonstrated nanoelectronic device is a
so-called primary thermometer, i.e., a thermometer which requires no
calibration. This makes the technology very attractive for low temperature
instrumentation applications and metrology.

(January 27, 2016) Teams
at HZB and TU Darmstadt have produced a cost-effective catalyst material for
fuel cells using a new preparation process which they analysed in detail. It
consists of iron-nitrogen complexes embedded in tiny islands of graphene only a
few nanometres in diameter. It is only the FeN4 centres that provide the
excellent catalytic efficiency – approaching that of platinum. The results are
interesting for solar fuels research as well and have been published in the
Journal of the American Chemical Society.

Fuel cells convert the chemical energy stored in hydrogen
(H2) into electrical energy by electrochemically “combusting" hydrogen gas
with oxygen (O2) from the air into water (H2O), thereby generating electricity.
As a result, future electric automobiles might be operated quite well with fuel
cells instead of with heavy batteries. But for “cold” combustion of hydrogen
and oxygen to function well, the anode and cathode of the fuel cell must be
coated with extremely active catalysts. The problem is that the platinum-based
catalysts employed for this contribute about 25 per cent of the total fuel-cell
costs.

However, iron-nitrogen complexes in graphene (known as
Fe-N-C catalysts) have been achieving levels of activity comparable to Pt/C
catalysts for several years already. “Systematic investigation of Fe-N-C
catalysts was difficult though, since most approaches for preparing the
materials lead to heterogeneous compounds. These contain various species of
iron compounds such as iron carbides or nitrides besides the intended FeN4
centres”, explains Sebastian Fiechter of HZB.

(January 27, 2016) Researchers
from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed a simplified
approach to fabricating flat, ultrathin optics. The new approach enables simple
etching without the use of acids or hazardous chemical etching agents.

“Our method brings us closer to making do-it-yourself optics
a reality by greatly simplifying the design iteration steps,” explained Kimani
Toussaint, an associate professor of mechanical science and engineering who led
the research published this week in Nature Communications. “The process
incorporates a nanostructured template that can be used to create many
different types of optical components without the need to go into a cleanroom
to make a new template each time a new optical component is needed.

“In recent years, the push to foster increased technological
innovation and basic scientific and engineering interest from the broadest
sectors of society has helped to accelerate the development of do-it-yourself
(DIY) components, particularly those related to low-cost microcontroller
boards,” Toussaint remarked. “Simplifying and reducing the steps between a
basic design and fabrication is the primary attraction of DIY kits, but
typically at the expense of quality. We present plasmon-assisted etching as an
approach to extend the DIY theme to optics with only a modest tradeoff in
quality, specifically, the table-top fabrication of planar optical components.”

Common coaxial cables could be made 50 percent lighter with
a new nanotube-based outer conductor developed by Rice University scientists.

The Rice lab of Professor Matteo Pasquali has developed a
coating that could replace the tin-coated copper braid that transmits the
signal and shields the cable from electromagnetic interference. The metal braid
is the heaviest component in modern coaxial data cables.

The research appears this month in the American Chemical
Society journal ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces.

Replacing the outer conductor with Rice’s flexible,
high-performance coating would benefit airplanes and spacecraft, in which the
weight and strength of data-carrying cables are significant factors in
performance.

A coating of
carbon nanotubes, seen through a clear jacket, replaces a braided metal outer

conductor in an
otherwise standard coaxial data cable. Rice University scientists designed

Rice research scientist Francesca Mirri, lead author of the
paper, made three versions of the new cable by varying the carbon-nanotube
thickness of the coating. She found that the thickest, about 90 microns –
approximately the width of the average human hair – met military-grade
standards for shielding and was also the most robust; it handled 10,000 bending
cycles with no detrimental effect on the cable performance.

“Current coaxial cables have to use a thick metal braid to
meet the mechanical requirements and appropriate conductance,” Mirri said. “Our
cable meets military standards, but we’re able to supply the strength and
flexibility without the bulk.”

Coaxial cables consist of four elements: a conductive copper
core, an electrically insulating polymer sheath, an outer conductor and a
polymer jacket. The Rice lab replaced only the outer conductor by coating
sheathed cores with a solution of carbon nanotubes in chlorosulfonic acid.
Compared with earlier attempts to use carbon nanotubes in cables, this method
yields a more uniform conductor and has higher throughput, Pasquali said. “This
is one of the few cases where you can have your cake and eat it, too,” he said.
“We obtained better processing and improved performance.”

Caruso changes completely the traditional furniture concept. With an iconic and distinctive design, it matches different materials: the precious and flexible ceramic applied on the outside part of the "trumpet sound speaker" with the straight and severe furniture structure outlines. Caruso includes a HI-FI system. The Bluetooth 4.0 connection offers a rich and unexpected high performance sound.

The tubular structure with the aid of straps, is fully covered in fabric, which tends, without using foams, creating soft and sinuous shapes which soaring upwards thanks to the slender legs, just like a lunar module. Soft seat cushions and back rest on the shell fabric to ensure maximum comfort.

The series LEM is complete of four variants, two or three seater sofa, armchair and ottoman.

The new modular Lem system provides five different single elements that can be flexibly matched to each other, satisfying any possible living setup solution.source >>

That future is on the horizon thanks to new research by L.
Mahadevan, the Lola England de Valpine Professor of Applied Mathematics,
Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, and Physics at the Harvard John A. Paulson
School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS). He is also a core faculty
member of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, and member
of the Kavli Institute for Bionano Science and Technology, at Harvard
University.

Mahadevan and his team have characterized a fundamental
origami fold, or tessellation, that could be used as a building block to create
almost any three-dimensional shape, from nanostructures to buildings. The
research is published in Nature Materials.

This spiral folds
rigidly from flat pattern through the target surface and onto the

flat-folded plane
(Image courtesy of Mahadevan Lab)

The folding pattern, known as the Miura-ori, is a periodic
way to tile the plane using the simplest mountain-valley fold in origami. It
was used as a decorative item in clothing at least as long ago as the 15th
century. A folded Miura can be packed into a flat, compact shape and unfolded
in one continuous motion, making it ideal for packing rigid structures like
solar panels. It also occurs in nature
in a variety of situations, such as in insect wings and certain leaves.

“Could this simple folding pattern serve as a template for
more complicated shapes, such as saddles, spheres, cylinders, and helices?”
asked Mahadevan.

“We found an incredible amount of flexibility hidden inside
the geometry of the Miura-ori,” said Levi Dudte, graduate student in the Mahadevan
lab and first author of the paper. “As it turns out, this fold is capable of
creating many more shapes than we imagined.”

January 26, 2016

(January 26, 2016) Quantum
objects cannot just be understood as the sum of their parts. This is what makes
quantum calculations so complicated. Scientists at TU Wien (Vienna) have now
calculated Bose-Einstein-condensates, revealing the secrets of the particles’
collective behaviour.

Quantum systems are extremely hard to analyse if they
consist of more than just a few parts. It is not difficult to calculate a
single hydrogen atom, but in order to describe an atom cloud of several
thousand atoms, it is usually necessary to use rough approximations. The reason
for this is that quantum particles are connected to each other and cannot be
described separately. Kaspar Sakmann (TU Wien, Vienna) and Mark Kasevich
(Stanford, USA) have now shown in an article published in “Nature Physics” that
this problem can be overcome. They succeeded in calculating effects in
ultra-cold atom clouds which can only be explained in terms of the quantum
correlations between many atoms. Such atom clouds are known as Bose-Einstein
condensates and are an active field of research.

Quantum Correlations

Quantum physics is a game of luck and randomness. Initially,
the atoms in a cold atom cloud do not have a predetermined position. Much like
a die whirling through the air, where the number is yet to be determined, the
atoms are located at all possible positions at the same time. Only when they
are measured, their positions are fixed. “We shine light on the atom cloud,
which is then absorbed by the atoms”, says Kaspar Sakmann. “The atoms are
photographed, and this is what determines their position. The result is
completely random.”

There is, however, an important difference between quantum
randomness and a game of dice: if
different dice are thrown at the same time, they can be seen as independent
from each other. Whether or not we roll a six with die number one does not
influence the result of die number seven. The atoms in the atom cloud on the
other hand are quantum physically connected. It does not make sense to analyse
them individually, they are one big quantum object. Therefore, the result of
every position measurement of any atom depends on the positions of all the
other atoms in a mathematically complicated way.

Proton density
after laser impact on a spherical solid density target: irradiated by an
ultra-short, high

intensity laser
(not in picture) the intense electro-magnetic field rips electrons apart from
their ions and

creates a plasma.
By varying the target geometry and laser properties, scientists could find
optimal

regimes to
accelerate high quality, directed ion beams that are currently studied in
accompanying

experiments. Image
Credits: Axel Huebl, HZDR, David Pugmire, ORNL).

(January 26, 2016) German
team makes large computational gains in laser-driven radiation therapy of
cancer

Since lasers were first produced in the early 1960s,
researchers have worked to apply laser technology from welding metal to
surgeries, with laser technology advancing quickly through the last 50 years.

Surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy all play
important roles in cancer treatment, and sometimes the best successes come from
combining all three approaches.

Doctors usually do the most common form of radiation therapy
with x-rays, which can penetrate tissue, killing the cancerous cells in
deep-seated tumors. Unfortunately, these same x-rays can also damage healthy
tissue surrounding the tumor.

Thus, in recent years, the use of beams of heavy particles,
such as protons or ions, has come into focus. These beams can deposit most of
their energy inside the tumor, while at the same time leaving the healthy
tissue unharmed. Unfortunately, these beams come from bulky particle
accelerators, which make the treatment cost prohibitive for many patients.

At the German research laboratory Helmholtz-Zentrum
Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), researchers are looking into replacing particle
accelerators with high-powered lasers. The electromagnetic fields of the laser
can accelerate ions in a very short time, thus effectively reducing the
distance needed to accelerate the ions to therapeutic energies from several
meters to a few micrometers.

As a scientist experienced in accelerator research and laser
physics, HZDR researcher Michael Bussmann aims for understanding and
controlling this new method of particle acceleration to make it available for
patient treatment. “I’m coming from accelerator research and laser physics, and
what my team and I have been looking at is how we make best use of the
high-power lasers so they can replace accelerators for applications like
treating cancerous tumors,” Bussmann said.

“This is fundamental physics on the one hand, as the laser
pulse rips apart all the matter found in a target, usually a very thin metal
foil or a tiny sphere, separating the building blocks of atoms—negatively
charged electrons and positively charged atomic nuclei, ions—from each other.
This state of matter is called a plasma,” Bussmann explained. “On the other
hand, it has real applications as well. Simulations play a role that is unique,
as experiments are still not very reproducible and we can’t really diagnose
what’s happening in a few femtoseconds.”

(January 26, 2016) Altwork’s objective is to redefine how your computer and workstation work with you, to support you in being more productive, comfortable, and healthy.

You would want to sit, stand, recline into a focus position for tackling your toughest work challenges or even work in a zero gravity position—all while maintaining ergonomic integrity and being comfortable so you can be more productive.

As engineers, designers, and technologists we believe your work can flow more freely when your computer moves with you throughout your work day.

January 25, 2016

bind to the protein
fibres in the process. The filtered water is of drinking quality.

(Graphics:
Bolisetty & Mezzenga, Nature Nanotechnology, 2016)

(January 25, 2016) ETH
researchers have developed a new water filtration system that is superior to
existing systems in many respects: it is extremely efficient at removing
various toxic heavy metal ions and radioactive substances from water and can
even be used in gold recovery.

In November, Brazil experienced an unparalleled
environmental disaster. When two dams broke at an iron ore mine, a poisonous
cocktail of heavy metals was sent pouring into the Rio Doce, reaching the
Atlantic some days later. The consequences were devastating for nature and
humans alike: countless fish, birds and animals died, and a quarter of a
million people were left without drinking water.

This case demonstrates that water pollution is one of
today’s most serious global problems. No satisfactory technical solution has
been found for the treatment of water contaminated with heavy metals or
radioactive substances. Existing methods used to remove water from heavy
metals, for example, have several disadvantages: either they are too targeted
at a specific element or their filter capacity is too small; additionally, they
are often too expensive.

Effective filtration
of heavy metals

Now, a solution may have been found in a new type of hybrid
filter membrane developed in the laboratory of Raffaele Mezzenga, Professor of
Food and Soft Materials at ETH Zurich. This technology not only has an
extremely simple structure, but also comprises low-cost raw materials, such as
whey protein fibres and activated charcoal. Heavy metal ions can be almost
completely removed from water in just a single pass through the filter
membrane.

Gold removed and
recovered from polluted water.

(Photograph: ETH
Zurich/R. Mezzenga/S. Bolisetty)

“The project is one of the most important things I might
have ever done,” says Mezzenga, enthusing about the new development. He and his
researcher Sreenath Bolisetty were the only people to work on it, and their
publication has just appeared in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.

Whey and activated
charcoal required

At the heart of the filtration system is a new type of
hybrid membrane made up of activated charcoal and tough, rigid whey protein
fibres. The two components are cheap to obtain and simple to produce.

First of all, the whey proteins are denatured, which causes
them to stretch, and ultimately come together in the form of amyloid fibrils.
Together with activated carbon (which is also contained in medical charcoal
tablets), these fibres are applied to a suitable substrate material, such as a
cellulose filter paper. The carbon content is 98%, with a mere 2% made up by
the protein.

Gold recovery thanks
to the filter membrane

This hybrid membrane absorbs various heavy metals in a
non-specific manner, including industrially relevant elements, such as lead,
mercury, gold and palladium. However, it also absorbs radioactive substances,
such as uranium or phosphorus-32, which are relevant in nuclear waste or
certain cancer therapies, respectively.

(January 25, 2016) The
United States could slash greenhouse gas emissions from power production by up
to 78 percent below 1990 levels within 15 years while meeting increased demand,
according to a new study by NOAA and University of Colorado Boulder
researchers.

The study used a sophisticated mathematical model to
evaluate future cost, demand, generation and transmission scenarios. It found
that with improvements in transmission infrastructure, weather-driven renewable
resources could supply most of the nation’s electricity at costs similar to
today’s.

“Our research shows a transition to a reliable, low-carbon,
electrical generation and transmission system can be accomplished with
commercially available technology and within 15 years,” said Alexander
MacDonald, co-lead author and recently retired director of NOAA’s Earth System
Research Laboratory (ESRL) in Boulder.

The paper is published online today in the journal Nature
Climate Change.

Although improvements in wind and solar generation have
continued to ratchet down the cost of producing renewable energy, these energy
resources are inherently intermittent. As a result, utilities have invested in
surplus generation capacity to back up renewable energy generation with natural
gas-fired generators and other reserves.

About Me

Graduated from University of Marmara, Academy of Fine Arts, Department of Design of Industrial Products and completed her dissertation titled "A Review on the Effects of the Trends & Periods on the Structural Constructions on the Products That are Associated With Consumer Electronics" in the same department for her Master’s Degree.

Lectured at University of Anatolia, Department of Industrial Products on part-time basis. Currently, she has been lecturing on part-time basis Faculty of Arts & Science, Department of Industrial Products Design at University of Doğuş.

She was the Head of ETMK Istanbul Branch from February 2010 to June 2011.

She took part in many competitions and projects as a member of advisory board and jury. Currently, she is the acting executive officer coordinating various projects between the Industry and University at the company where she is employed.

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